Two Unity Exchange Stores - How Do I Make Them Redundant?

[gpulos]

hey all you unity masters...that i look upto with AWE...!! (especially you ginger and rob.huffman)

i cannot seem to find the answer i need on cco.

i have a unity system, with failover, that has two separate exchange message stores integrated. not clustered or redundant in any way.

i have 2000 users on one message store and 2000 users on the other message store.

if one message store dies, half of my users will have no voice mail.

how do i get my two message stores to act as redundant or clustered?

NOTE: unity is 4.0.5; message stores are exchange 2000; stand alone AD (not integrated with a corporate AD)

[Tommer Catlin]

You will need preform open heart surgery on the Exchange servers. Just jokin.

You will need to migrate the users into a new Clustered enviroment. You can't just take the two servers and make them a cluster. I was trying to dig around MS to figure this out, but if I recall, this is the best approach:

1. install new Exchange 2003 cluster (or virtual) to AD

2. Add Exchange permissions from Unity to the new cluster

3. move mailboxes from stand alone stores, to the Exchange Cluster store.

4. follow MS decommision process for the Stand Alone Exchange boxes.

[Ginger Dillon]

Hi -

If you lose an Exchange server, your Unity users hosted by that server will have access to NEW voice messages because UMR will take over (unless the Unity_servername mailbox is on that server). This is do-able, but I have not done this. One of my Unity servers is on a cluster, and Unity partners just fine with the Exchange virtual server. I found this link, which may be of help from the Exchange perspective - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2000/deploy/exonclus.mspx

From what I can see, you would have to (1) install a new Microsoft cluster server, (2) install Exchange on the cluster and test that; (3) run Unity permissions for the new Exchange stores; (4) run Unity message store configuration wizard to partner to the Exchange virtual server; (5) move your Unity mailboxes to the new cluster. There are caveats you'll want to review if you consider clustering, see this link - http://searchexchange.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid43_gci962009,00.html

At least that info should get your research going. And I would consult your current Cisco and Microsoft account reps to help you in this endeavor if you elect to pursue.

Ginger

[gpulos]

thank you for your replies.

i thought this was going to be a nightmare to some extent...but it doesn't seem too much of a hassle.

arg....if they could make exchange any more complicated, perhaps that would be best so i could just tell the GOV it's impossible.....j/k <@:-)~

i'll complete the research you've started for me and try this in my lab for starters.

thank you again!

[Tommer Catlin]

In this large of enviroment, I would do use this tool. When I was more of an AD/Exchange guy, I used this tool to migrate and works and well worth the investement.

http://www.quest.com/migration_suite_for_exchange/